Friday, April 27, 2007

BEhind the scenes - Kris Lee McBride: A New Voice

Best Evidence is a risky film for a lot of reasons. One of them is the serious nature of the content, particularly when compared to most other documentaries about the UFO phenomenon.

Now, to UFO afficianados, "serious" sounds promising, but a parade of talking heads is death on television.

It's the fine line that I've always had to walk - trying to keep it entertaining for the vast majority of people for whom UFOs are just an interesting diversion, while also providing content that the much smaller minority of people truly interested in the UFO phenomenon might find compelling.

One of the other (calculated) risks is my attempt to give the film a different voice. Most documentaries have male narrators - indeed, while the person might be different each time, the style they use (deep, faux authoritative, with seeming gravitas) often sounds the same. Now, there's a reason producers do this - why try to re-invent the wheel when it seems to work perfectly well?

I'm not most producers, however. I think we should hear different voices in films, particularly films about the UFO phenomenon, where so many of the voices are older men.

Enter actress Kris Lee McBride as the narrator for Best Evidence.

Kris is a recent graduate of the acting program at the University of Windsor, in Ontario. I directed her this past winter in a play here in Halifax, where she demonstrated the kind of talent that you can't teach, and the kind of commitment to her craft that all producer or director respects. In short, she's top notch, so I decided she was going to be the English-language voice for Best Evidence.

Now, over the years I've made some pretty boneheaded decisions (narrating Do You Believe in Majic myself was one of them). Engaging Kris for Best Evidence has been one of the better ones.

How do I know? There's my own reaction, of course, and that of my post audio guy, and... well, everyone else involved. But, corny as it sounds, my Mom, who represents the general viewing public as well as anyone else, dug Kris' work (my Mom has never had a problem telling me when I've made a boneheaded decision). I sent a clip of a segment of the film to my parents, just for some feedback. My Mom wrote me: "Just finished listening to the piece on Shaq Harbour, Kris is good, a nice clear, easy listening voice, must be the theatre training."

Good enough for my Mom? Then she's good enough for me!

There's a new voice coming to the world of UFO documentaries, and it's Kris Lee McBride. I'm pretty sure that someday you're going to see her on bigger screens, or in bigger projects, because she's got what it takes to make it there - and then some!

When that day comes, we'll all look back fondly on Best Evidence, where it began, and say, "remember when?"

This would have been such a great documentary, interesting, thought provoking etc, just very well done, but Kris Lee McBride's voice was very distracting.As a female narrator, she needs to really work on her voice, especially if she has as much talent as you say she does, maybe voice lessons would help, because in this documentary she sounded like fingernails on a blackboard. She nearly ruined it. I'll watch it in full if it ever gets re-narrated.

Reviews

"Documentary film-maker Paul Kimball takes a level-headed look at a number of well-known (and some not so well-known) cases. After the mass enthusiasm for UFOs created by fictional series like the X-Files, the resulting explosion of sensational 'documentaries', and outright hoaxes like the 'Alien Autopsy' footage, perhaps we will now start to see a more thoughtfu; and rational approach to ufology in the media. Despite including such contentious cases as Rendlesham, Kimball's film even appears to have been well received by many ufologists. Let's hope that this bodes well for the future of ufology."

- Fortean Times

"Certainly one of the best documentaries of the past few years... well done!"

"Canadian director/producer Paul Kimball is a man who knows ufology. While he may not be a favourite with many notables in the UFO research community - due to his tendency to state what he thinks of various theories, cases and personalities quite openly - he does know the history behind the topic very well, and brings a natural skepticism as well (without being a debunking zealot). Indeed, one could hardly think of a better person to produce a definitive documentary about the best UFO sightings to this point. Well, happy times are here, because Kimball has recently completed exactly that: Best Evidence: Top Ten UFO Sightings... The interviews with ufologists and experiencers are shot beautifully, and for me were the central focus of Best Evidence. Not having the access to conferences and events that some do, it's always a pleasure for me to watch the experts explain their point of view - and Kimball gives them plenty of chance to do so. Friedman brings gravitas as well as some theatre with his wonderfully intoned comments, Brad Sparks speaks with a knowledge of ufological history as well as technical nous, and Mac Tonnies offers a wonderful concluding comment to the documentary. I am told that the DVD, when it goes on sale, will offer a second disc with extended interviews covering not only the top ten presented here, but others as well - something to look forward to. In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled on your local television station, and hope that it comes your way soon. And also that Paul Kimball continues to receive commissions to create fascinating documentaries of the standard of Best Evidence.

"The ten cases you present are truly stunning. I can't imagine anyone watching this would not be left thinking: what the hell is going on? Why isn't anyone studying this? You've done a truly excellent job! Though I was familiar with most of these cases, you managed to even astonish me."

"With welcome commentary by Brad Sparks, Richard Hall and Stanton Friedman, "Best Evidence" rises to the top of the UFO documentary pile by virtue of its eloquence, brevity and innate respect for a phenomenon which, unlike lesser attempts, it doesn't pretend to be able to solve."

"Here at last is a documentary produced not only by someone who knows what he's talking about but who has also delivered a fact-driven, objective piece of work featuring people who also know what they're talking about. Simple, clear, unsensational, to the point; an outstanding piece of work and a piece of work we can use to point others to as a perfect example of what the subject of UAPs/UFOs is all about."

"A magnificent documentary. It picked out the cases as put forth by people who basically vetted them all out and looked at them and said, 'okay, here you go, here's the top cases.' That's what needs to be done... It was perfect. It was absolutely perfect."

"Paul Kimball has raised the bar, decidedly, on what constitutes a competent film documentary about UFOs, and he has produced a work at once wonderfully convincing and thoroughly authoritative... indeed as interesting as it is compelling in every conceivable way."

"Even if I did not know Kimball personally, I would have given a big thumbs-up to Best Evidence, if only for its dispassionate premise that something which shows intelligence, but is not human, has been racing through our skies for centuries, and occasionally landing on the ground. It’s the one to show your friends who can’t understand why anyone would take the UFO subject seriously."

"It's very concise, and it's very slick, and it's very well done, and it should be on the Sci-Fi Channel and on DVD... You can rest assured that if you're going to plunk your hard-earned dollars down for a documentary that Best Evidence is the one to buy."

About Me

I graduated from Acadia University in 1989 with an Honours Degree in History and Political Science, and in 1992 from Dalhousie with an LL.B. After working for the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation and Salter Street Films, and as a consultant on film and television to the governments of Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland, I founded Redstar Films Limited in 1999.
My work as a producer and director since includes documentaries for networks including CBC, Vision, Bravo, TVNZ, Knowledge Network, SCN and Space: The Imagination Station, as well as the television series The Classical Now and Ghost Cases, and the feature films The Cuckoo in the Clock (2014) and Roundabout (2014).